ASM Agar Art Workshop Facilitator's Guide

In 2015, the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) launched the ASM Agar Art Contest to share the beautiful and diverse world of microbes with the public. Our participants have shown us time and again that you don't need to be an expert microbiologist to make beautiful agar art - it's something anyone can create with access to a basic laboratory.

Host your own Agar Art workshop in your community using our Facilitator's Guide (linked below). To host a workshop, you need the following:

a space that is BSL-1 compliant, such as a high school or college biology laboratory
materials and equipment for cultivating microbes (complete list is in the guide)
someone with the appropriate experience to lead the workshop

ASM's Agar Art Contest runs in the fall, with submissions due in mid-October. We accept all agar art regardless of when it was created, as long as it has not been published before (don't post to Twitter!). Please encourage anyone who participates in your workshop to submit their work!

Contact Information

ASM Communications, communications@asmusa.org

Lesson Plans ASM Agar Art Workshop Facilitator's Guide

Bring Microbiology to Your Community

Contact Information

Register for ABRCMS

Discover ASM membership

Get published in an ASM journal